A treatise on ruptures : containing an anatomical description of each species: with an account of its symptoms, progress, and treatment.

  • Lawrence, William, Sir, 1783-1867.
Date:
1811
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on ruptures : containing an anatomical description of each species: with an account of its symptoms, progress, and treatment. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    The protruded portion of peritoneum is called the hernial sac. This, with its contents, either passes through some natural opening in the abdominal pari- etes, as at the ring; or is forced through some part, where there is ordinarily no perforation. The cavity of the rupture is, therefore, continuous with that of the abdomen; and is lined by a prolongation of its serous membrane. The same causes, which first produced the complaint, or others of an analogous nature, are con- stantly tending to promote its increase. Hence the peritoneum, feebly opposed by the cellular membrane, and integuments, is extended so as to form a bag of various size and figure, communicating with the abdo- men by a comparatively small opening, called the mouth of the sac. The contracted part between the mouth, and the point at which the membrane begins to expand, is the neck; and the most distant point from the abdo- men, which is generally at the same time the largest, has been termed the fundus of the sac. The peritoneum, which always immediately sur- rounds the protruded viscera, retains generally the same thin and delicate structure, which characterises the do not fall within the scope of the present work. Again, hernia have been distinguished as internal or external: the latter consisting of obvi- ous tumours formed in the mode indicated by the definition; while the former are instances of strangulation caused by certain internal changes of position, not indicated by external swellings, as when the bowels pass through an aperture in the diaphragm, or are confined by preternatural bands of adhesion. A compliance with common usage, which regards these as species of hernia, leads me to notice them in this work, although they do not coine under the definition. The existence of a peritoneal covering is not essential to the notion of a hernia; since that of the bladder wants this character.